Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting this year’s Oscars in a string of scandals to plague the 2019 Academy Awards. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

Following an outcry from many of the movie industry’s most prominent figures, the Academy of Motion Pictures has reversed its decision to present four awards during the commercial breaks of this year’s Oscar broadcast.

The academy today announced all 24 categories will be shown live during the ceremony next Monday Australian-time.

Earlier this week, it had said that the winning speeches for cinematography, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, and live-action short would be aired in a shortened, taped segment during the broadcast.

Criticism of the move was fiercely contested by many nominees to this year’s Academy Awards, including Roma director Alfonso Cuaron.

Oscars producers have reversed its move to cut the telecast of certain categories after an outcry. Picture: Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, FileSource:AP

The American Society of Cinematographers issued an open-letter, signed by Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt, Spike Lee and others, calling the academy’s plans an insult to the cinematic arts.

The letter blasted the decision to not air the four awards, which also include live-action short and hairstyling and makeup, live on the ABC telecast.

“Relegating these essential cinematic crafts to lesser status in this 91st Academy Awards ceremony is nothing less than an insult to those of us who have devoted our lives and passions to our chosen profession,” the group wrote.

“When the recognition of those responsible for the creation of outstanding cinema is being diminished by the very institution whose purpose it is to protect it, then we are no longer upholding the spirit of the Academy’s promise to celebrate film as a collaborative art form.”

The academy responded with a letter of its own, blaming “inaccurate reporting and social media posts” for “a chain of misinformation”.

BEHIND THE OSCARS BACKLASH

After that infamous envelope mix-up and the reckoning that followed the expulsion of Harvey Weinstein from the academy, this year’s Academy Awards drama has been self-inflicted.

In response to last year’s all-time low of 26.5 million viewers, the Oscars — the grandest and most glamorous award show ever created — are shrinking.

“People in general have a hard time with change. Change is sometimes hard to swallow. And I think the way that the news came out, it came out in the wrong way,” says Mary Zophres, one of the 54 members of the board of governors and a costume designer nominated this year for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

The academy’s headaches began after it last summer trotted out the induction of a “popular film Oscar.”

The plan sparked such outrage (Rob Lowe pronounced the film industry dead, “survived by sequels, tent-poles and vertical integration”) that the new award was scuttled within a month.

Then Kevin Hart announced that he was hosting this year’s awards.

When many took issue with his old homophobic tweets, the comedian initially “chose to pass on the apology,” inflaming the backlash.

Within hours, he withdrew as host and, finally supplied an apology to the LGBTQ community. The Oscars are now host-less for only the fifth time in its 91-year history.

Other plans to tweak tradition also backfired. After first planning to limit the best song nominee performances, the academy confirmed that all songs will indeed be performed.

“They made the right decision to include all the songs,” said Diane Warren, a nominee for the RBG song I’ll Fight.

“It wouldn’t be fair to just have two songs. That’s basically saying those other songs don’t matter.”

Some have blamed US TV network ABC, which owns the Oscar broadcast rights for the next decade, for pressuring the academy into some of these measures. ABC declined to comment.

Still, the negative response from prominent academy members was more than the academy’s leadership was expecting.

Alfonso Cuaron, who’s nominated for four Oscars including best cinematography, has been among the most vocal critics, declaring: “No one single film has ever existed without CINEMAtography and editing.”

Guillermo del Toro, whose The Shape of Water won best picture and best director at last year’s ceremony, said cinematography and editing “are cinema itself.”

“I’m an artist so I believe we’ve all worked really hard, we’ve nurtured our gifts and we should all be able to celebrate them with the world,” says Regina King, a nominee for best supporting actress.

“It just doesn’t seem like 15 minutes is gonna make that big of a difference.”

But the academy is insistent on getting the normally four hour-plus telecast down to three hours.

Ratings for all award shows have declined in recent years, but it remains to be seen whether a shorter show will have any effect on larger viewing habit transformations.